Manning Johnson: Color, Communism and Common Sense

I would venture to say that not too many people these days have ever heard of Manning Johnson. I would also venture to say that plenty of people would prefer it stayed that way—at least on the far-left-side of the political spectrum.

Manning Johnson was a full-fledged Communist for 10 years. Johnson admits he was “sold this ‘bill of goods’ by a Negro graduate of the Lenin Institute in Moscow.”

Members of communist and socialist groups from around the world who showed great promise for furthering the cause of worldwide communism were sometimes offered the chance to attend Marxist schools like Lenin’s Institute for Higher Learning or Patrice Lumumba University (now known as the Russian Peoples’ Friendship University). Students were taught the finer points of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, i.e. Russian history, racial agitation, trade union building, and the like.

If anyone is naive enough to believe communism (a.k.a. socialism) will bring about a “post-racial world,” chances are they don’t know much about communism. The subversive tactics used by communists are intentionally designed to pit one group against the other—black vs. white, man vs. woman, gay vs. straight, rich (1%) vs. poor (99%)—divide and conquer, ad nauseum.

The “struggle” is eternal. In order for the revolution to continue, the agitation of social classes and groups must never end; it must go on and on and on. This should become clearer to the uninitiated after reading Manning Johnson’s book Color, Communism and Common Sense (1958).

Below is an excerpt from the first chapter of Color, Communism and Common Sense. Additionally, I have included a link to the audio of “Manning Johnson’s Farewell Address.” You can read the entire text of Manning’s book at manningjohnson.org.

CHAPTER ONE – IN THE WEB

Ten years I labored in the cause of Communism. I was a dedicated “comrade.” All my talents and efforts were zealously used to bring about the triumph of Communism in America and throughout the world. To me, the end of capitalism would mark the beginning of an interminable period of plenty, peace, prosperity and universal comradeship. All racial and class differences and conflicts would end forever after the liquidation of the capitalists, their government and their supporters. A world union of Soviet States under the hegemony of Russia would free and lead mankind on to Utopia.

Being an idealist, I was sold this “bill of goods” by a Negro graduate of the Lenin Institute in Moscow.

The color of one’s skin is no bar to a young man or woman dreaming of making a better world. Like other Negroes, I experienced and saw many injustices and inequities around me based upon color, not ability. I was told that “the decadent capitalist system is responsible,” that “mass pressure” could force concessions but “that just prolongs the life of capitalism”; that I must unite and work with all those who more or less agree that capitalism must go.

Little did I realize until I was deeply enmeshed in the Red Conspiracy, that just and seeming grievances are exploited to transform idealism into a cold and ruthless weapon against the capitalist system—that this is the end toward which all the communist efforts among Negroes are directed.

Indeed, I had entered the red conspiracy in the vain belief that it was the way to a “new, better and superior” world system of society. Ten years later, thoroughly disillusioned, I abandoned communism. The experiences of those years in “outer darkness” are like a horrible nightmare. I saw communism in all its naked cruelty, ruthlessness and utter contempt of Christian attributes and passions. And, too, I saw the low value placed upon human life, the total lack of respect for the dignity of man, the betrayal of trust, the terror of the Secret Police and the bloody hand of the assassin, during and since, those fateful years when I embraced communism.

I was lured into the red movement by way of the American Negro Labor Congress, one of the many “front organizations” set up by the communists to trap the naive, unwary, unsuspecting and idealistic Negro. The use of such attractive and appealing fronts as a means of entrapment is a most important serpentine method of the reds.

After two years of practical training in organizing street demonstrations, inciting mob violence, how to fight the police and how to politically “throw a brick and hide,” I was ready, in the opinion of my leaders, for a top communist school.

At a secret national training school in New York City, I was given an extensive and intensive course in the theory and practice of red political warfare. As a result, I was appointed District Organizer by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party in the Buffalo, New York area, one of the vital industrial sections of our country. It was in the position of District Organizer that I learned to use secret codes, “mail drops,” organize clandestine meetings, “shake police shadows” and other underground activities. At the same time I became acquainted with the nature of communist sabotage and espionage.

My zeal, training, both theoretical and practical, combined with loyalty and willingness to sacrifice, changed me from a novice into a dedicated red—a professional revolutionist. Consequently, I climbed rapidly to the National Committee, the highest governing body of the Communist Party in America.

Use to promote The Bound

Selected Quotations

“The descent to Hell is easy and those who begin by worshiping power soon worship evil.” C.S. Lewis

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak; not to act is to act.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.”

Proverbs 22:7 NASB

“Indeed, in a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen.”
Chief Justice John Marshall

“'Don't I have the right to do what I want
with my own money?'”Jesus Christ, in a parable of a “capitalist,” Mt. 20:15
---
There is only one direction to go, from liberty,
and the only freedom from subjugation is Sovereignty.

Racism & Race-baiting

Neither racism nor race-baiting is well tolerated by the Bound. Ethnic haters: visit here and learn better, or go your own sorry ways.

Bound to One’s Own Statements

The purported facts, opinions, sentiments, and even the music, pictures, and links in Gulag Bound's entries, comments, headings, sidebars, footers, and whatever else is here do not escape the boundaries of the sole responsibility of their individual authors. Even the number of spaces between sentences -- pretty much anything sensed here by the sentient.